118 



feet, at length branching and tipping freely, stout and pentagonal 

 at the base. Prickles of fair size but rather weak and not 

 numerous, on the angles or in rows over the angles of the pentag- 

 onal pith, these grading into small prickles set at random and 

 into glandular bristles passing into glandular hairs. Leaves of 

 moderate size, dark yellow-green and slightly hairy on the upper 

 surface, lighter and pubescent below, 5-foliolate on vigorous 

 canes. Leaflets oval, short-pointed, the middle one quite broad, 

 over one-half as wide as long and rounded at the base ; the 

 others narrower and broadly wedge-shaped, finely and doubly 

 serrate-dentate, outline otherwise entire. Petioles and petiolules 

 grooved, stout with weak, hooked prickles and abundant glandu- 

 lar hairs both bristly and slender ; the petiolule of the middle 

 leaflet three-fourths of an inch long, the lateral ones short and 

 the basal leaflets sessile. 



Old canes. — More prostrate, the prickles and glandular hairs 

 but little impaired, and in protected places the leaves of the 

 previous season sometimes persisting. New growth upright, 

 polymorphous, one and two leafy branches or stemlets from each 

 old leaf-axil, the axis zigzag, three to twelve inches high, nearly 

 terete, with a few weak prickles, abundant unequal glandular 

 hairs and non-glandular pubescence. Pure leafy stemlets few, 

 resembling new canes, leaves on them 3- and 5-foliolate; the 

 other growth 3-foliolate or on some vigorous stemlets 5-folio- 

 late below ; leaflets rather broad, short-pointed, all leaves on 

 old canes closely resembling those of new canes in color, serra- 

 tion and pubescence. Stemlets tipped with a racemose, irregu- 

 lar inflorescence, five- to fifteen-flowered ; flowers on slender ped- 

 icels set at a small angle with the axis, mostly subtended by 

 small bracts, occasionally by an unifoliolate leaf. Flowers one 

 inch broad ; petals oval, regular in shape, two-thirds as wide 

 as long. Fruit black, sweet, very edible, rather small, short- 

 cylindric, one-fourth to three-eighths inches long, drupelets rather 

 large. Flowers in early places June i ; fruits the middle of July, 

 continuing in fruit in moist rich situations till September 10 or 

 even later. 



In open places in dry or rich ground. Frequent in an area 

 with a radius of two miles partly in the northeastern part of Put- 

 ney, Vt., and partly in the southeastern part of Westminster, Vt. 



My first acquaintance with this peculiar species was in June, 

 1902. It grows in the immediate neighborhood of my home and 

 I am continually finding new stations by the roadside, by fences 



